Clothes-line tightener.



UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEioE.

ROBERT C. SGHEUBER AND LGUIS MAREK, OF `[l'] TIC)ll\l' HILL, NEW JERSEY,

CLGTI-IES-LINE TIGHTENER.

YSpecification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 2, 1909.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ROBERT C. SGHEU- RER and LOUIS MAREK, both citizens of the United States, andresidents of Union I-Iill, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, haveinvented a new and Improved Clothes-Line Tightener, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to clothes line tighteners, and the object of the invention is to produce a device which can be readily applied to a clothes line, which will enable the slack of the line to be taken up, and which will maintain the line under tension.

The invention consists in the construction and combination of parts to be more fully described hereinafter and particularly set forth in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specilication, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a perspective of the device, showing a short section of an endless clothes line to which the invention has been applied; Fig. 2 is a plan of the device, further illustrating its construction and indicating the clothesline in dotted lines; and Fig. 3 is a side elevation and partial section on the line 3-3 ofFig. 2, in this view the line being indicated in dotted lines.

Referring more particularly to the parts, 1 represents the device, the body of which is formed of wood or similar material, and comprises fixed head blocks or heads 2 attached to an elongated rectangular frame 3 formed of wire or similar material. The frame 3 comprises parallel side bars 4 which pass through openings 5 formed in the heads, as indicated. The heads are disposed at the ends of the frame, and at one end the frame 3 is formed with an eye 6 in a horizontal plane, that is, in the plane of the frame. At the other end of the frame, the wire which forms the frame is bent upwardly so as to form a guide eye or guide ring 7 which is disposed above the level of the upper face of the device, and this ring is disposed in a vertical plane, as shown.

On the bars 4, between the heads 2, there is removably mounted a slide or slide block 8 which has longitudinal openings 9 receiving the bars t, as indicated. The clothes line 10 is what is known as an endless line, that is, the ends of the line form loops passing around guide pulleys. This line is attached permanently to the eye 6, as indicated at 11 in Fig. 1. The loose end of the clothes line passes through the guide ring 7 and passes across the upper face of the block or slide 8. This block or slide 8 is too short to form a complete bridge between the heads 2, so that gaps 12 and 18 are formed at the ends thereof, the gap 12 being disposed at the right, as shown. Through this gap 12, the loose end of the line passes downwardly and then back along the under face of the slide. The loose end is then passed upwardly through the gap 13. In this way a loop 14 is formed around one end of the slide 8, and when the tension in the line exerts itself, this loop holds the slide 8 forwardly, that is, in the direction of the guide ring 7. In this way the forward end of the slide pinches the loose end of the line in the gap 13 and holds the line securely, maintaining the tension therein. At the point where the line passes through the gaps 12 and 18, the upper and lower faces of the heads and the block are slightly dished so as to form rounded lips or recesses 15 which adapt themselves to the rounded form of the line. preferably consists of manila or hemp rope, or rope made of similar material.

Of course by seizing the line nea-r its points of attachment to the tightening device, the tension in the line at the loop 14 may be relaxed so as to enable the loose end to be advanced through the gaps; in this way the slack is taken up.

While this device is intended especially as a tightener for clothes lines, it may be used as a come-along where a rope, cable or chain is to be tightened up.

Having thus described our invention, we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent,- 4

1. A clothes line tightener comprising a pair of substantially rectangular heads, a substantially rectangular block disposed between said heads, said block being shorter than the span between said heads whereby gaps are formed between the ends thereof and said heads, means for supporting and guiding said block to slide between said heads, said block and said heads presenting end faces substantially at right angles to the longitudinal axis of said tightener and adapted to pinch the line therebetween, an eye adjacent to one of said heads adapted The line 10.

to have the clothes line attached perma-v nently thereto, and a guide member at the opposite head through which the line may ass.

2. A clothesline tightener, having a frame presenting two parallel bars, substantially rectangular blocks fixed at the endsy of said frame, and a substantially rectangular slide block mounted to slide onv said bars and forming gaps adjacent tosaid heads through which the clothes line may pass, said frame having an eye formed at one extremity thereof and having a second eye at the opposite extremity thereof, said second eye projecting laterally so as to receive the line passing along the flat side of said slide block.

3. A clothes line tightener having a frame formed of wire presenting a pair of parallel bars and having an integral eye formed at one end thereof in substantially the same plane with said bars, blocks forming heads vattached on said bars, and a slide block mounted on said bars between said heads and forming gaps adjacent said heads througlirwhich the line may pass, said frame havingA a laterally projecting integral eye at the end thereof opposite said first eye, said laterally projecting eye being adapted to receive a line passing along the side face of said block. A

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ROBERT o. soHEURER. Louis MAREK.

Witnesses:

ALEXANDER L. STEIN, JACOB HAUCK'. 

